Tracktion StageBox: Is This Live Performance Plugin Host a MainStage Killer?
5,0 / 5,0 | 
Tracktion StageBox is here to make keyboardists’ lives easier on stage – but is it good enough to tempt you away from MainStage?
Tracktion StageBox
Tracktion is one of my favorite plugin companies. Although the loose association of developers often releases unique instruments and effects like Dawesome MYTH and Hate, and MOK Waverazor, the company’s latest is surprisingly straightforward. Called StageBox, Tracktion has designed it as a live performance plugin host and DAW replacement – a challenger to Apple’s MainStage, in other words.
“The Ultimate Live-Performance Tool”
Billed as the “ultimate live-performance tool for keyboard players,” Tracktion StageBox is a standalone plugin host and setlist manager for live performance. Grammy-nominated composer Matt Robertson put it together with Tracktion developer Jules Storer as his dream performance platform.
Although StageBox doesn’t have any instruments of its own, it hosts both AU and VST3 plugin instruments and effects. You can use these to create setups for songs, with layers of instruments and keyboard splits possible. You can apply effects per sound and per song. You can also share instruments between songs to reduce CPU and RAM load and send sound layers to different hardware audio outputs.
Setlists
Because Tracktion StageBox is aimed at performers, it features a Setlist section made up of songs and sounds that you’ve created. You can use external MIDI program change messages to change songs in your setlist as well.
StageBox also promises on-the-fly transitions between songs: “DAWs usually don’t have any way to make a seamless transition between two different sounds/songs, unless workarounds are made which compromise other areas of performance,” the site says.
You can also program MIDI mappings per song, rather than as a whole template, useful if you need quick access to different instrument parameters for each song.
Price and Availability
Although there are already a few live-performance oriented apps on the market, such as Apple’s MainStage and Gig Performer, StageBox has chosen ease-of-use over depth of features. I can see how both could be useful, but if what you need is something simple yet powerful for live performances, StageBox could be worth a look.
Tracktion StageBox is now available from the developer for $99.
More Information
- Tracktion StageBox product page
- All about Tracktion
- All about software
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